Amsterdam has emerged as Zagreb Airport’s second busiest route and has narrowed the gap on Frankfurt, which has historically been the Croatian capital’s most popular and consistent service. KLM and Croatia Airlines handled a combined total of 232.553 passengers between Zagreb and Amsterdam in 2024, representing a year-on-year increase of 18.2%. The route added 35.741 additional travellers in a single year, surpassing both the Istanbul and Dubrovnik service. The passenger gap between the Frankfurt route, operated by both Lufthansa and Croatia Airlines, and Amsterdam stood at 108.467 in 2023, but narrowed significantly to 61.856 in 2024.
Much of the growth in demand has been generated by KLM, which increased its capacity on the route by 26% year-over-year and is catering to a growing number of transfer passengers on top of the point-to-point demand. During the 2025 summer season, the Dutch carrier has 119.120 seats on the market between Amsterdam and Zagreb, up 15.7% on the previous summer. The airline will continue to maintain double daily flights between the two cities, however, some 56% of services will be operated by the E195-E2 aircraft, 21% with the Boeing 737-700, 14% with the B737-800 and the remainder with the E190. Capacity on the route will grow primarily due to the 132-seat E195-E2, which will double in use compared to the summer of 2024, replacing the smaller E190.
The table below, indicates passenger numbers for most of Zagreb’s scheduled destinations, although not all. The figures in the table account for just over 95% of Zagreb’s total passenger numbers in 2024.
Zagreb Airport's passenger performance by route, 2024
Surprising that Lufthansa's strategy of offering Ryanair service at legacy prices is driving passengers away.
ReplyDeleteLH's performance is being directly impacted by KL and TK.
DeleteLufthansa's problem is not the service. It's the awful flight times from Zagreb and into Zagreb.
DeleteThe biggest problem is that if you land in Frankfurt early in the morning you have to wait for hours before you can fly Frankfurt-Zagreb.
DeleteI also think there is a lot more point to point demand for Amsterdam than for Frankfurt but maybe I'm wrong. At least for leisure travel I'm sure there are a lot more people heading to Amsterdam than Frankfurt for a city break.
DeleteAdmin, do you have the P2P numbers for comparison?
DeleteYes. Lots of Croatians buy 250eur tickets to Amsterdam and then pay accommodation for city break as well! Ha - ha!
DeletePeople go on city breaks to Alicante and Pisa my friend :)
OMG what is wrong with you? You are comparing Amsterdam with Alicante?
DeleteWhat's up with the insane Munich growth?
ReplyDeleteLH added second daily flight I believe.
DeleteThere was a big downturn during Covid so numbers are now going back up.
DeleteLH optimises their schedule as one company, it is better for them to fly pax via MUC than FRA. so just a shift. LH is not losing.
DeleteInteresting numbers. I'm surprised how many routes are still below pre Covid levels.
ReplyDeletenot really! Most of passengers are tourist
DeleteThank god for Ryanair. The numbers would be far from rosy without them.
Delete@9.05 what do you mean "not really"? Basically just 5 routes (which were served in 2019) are above pre covid levels.
DeleteThat's because people no longer have to transfer to fly to places. Ryanair has added dozens of direct destinations that were not there before.
DeleteBRU has been destroyed by launch of Charleroi, even though it isn't a very convenient airport in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteLHR too.
DeleteYeah but the difference in price is astronomical
DeleteStansted is also expensive as the train to St Pancras is like 60 bucks both ways
DeleteThe train costs £9.90 if you book in advance of travel. What "60 bucks" are you talking about? By the way the Heathrow Express is more expensive.
DeleteFrom LHR to London you have Picadilly line. It costs something like 6,5 GBP.
DeleteI think Ryanair is impacting a lot of routes.
ReplyDeleteDeep thinker.
DeleteSurprised how much growth Amsterdam has seen. Good job KLM. I doubt it has anything to do with OU.
ReplyDeleteCorrect, it's nothing to do with OU. Although, in fairness to them, there isn't much they can do when the slots are constrained.
DeleteIt does seem there is room for both of them on this route.
DeleteThere isn't room for OU at AMS, that's the issue. The airport is basically running at full capacity. Same as Eindhoven
Delete09.14 and 10.32
DeleteNot quite correct. If OU didn't decide to have single type fleet, based on criminal and highly corruptive BCG "consulting" deal, they could have opted to go on with A320 family and A321/A321XLR for both US East coast and high density european routes, especially ones slot constained. Only in AMS it would be 25 % more seats available if A321 operated the route instead A220/A320. But their goal is not to develop their network based on proper fleet, but to continue serving Lufthansa having higher profits and being continously humiliated feeder. PIR
OU's flights to BER & ARN are not helping FRA flights. There is less need to transfer. KL is powerful to the Americas and that is why they are doing so well.
ReplyDeleteYes. Good network. AMS is a good hub and in my opinion KLM is a better airline than Lufthansa in terms of service.
DeleteKLM is better than Lufthansa and Amsterdam is better than Frankfurt to transfer in. But the real factor driving the growth is that KLM has much better flight times, better transfer connection durations, and is generally cheaper. Lufthansa is ridiculously expensive.
DeleteDoes anyone know how ARN and BER flights are doing
DeleteI love Amsterdam airport. Not too big, great shopping, a couple of good bars. Miserable security checks with adrenaline and attitude pumped up security staff.
DeleteNot too big?
DeleteIt's remarkably small given how many passengers it has. It's all just one terminal and you can walk everywhere for your connections. Compare that to awful Heathrow or even Frankfurt where you need over an hour to connect between different terminals.
DeleteBEG has a very solid performance
ReplyDeleteMore passengers than Madrid!
DeleteLF is about 60%...Thats even for OU and JU low...
DeleteThat's a profit on Atr. And LF is higher than on OU
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/03/zagrebs-ex-yu-routes-grow-but-most.html
I assume things have changed but I was flying out of AMS in 2023 and it was the biggest nightmare I have ever encountered at an airport. At 5AM there was a 2 kilometer line just to get into the terminal. Was beautiful standing in the rain outside in cold weather at 4.30am (even though it was summer). It took 2 hours to clear security, inside lines for everything, from the cafe to the toilets...
ReplyDelete* 2022 not 2023
DeleteYes, thing are back to normal. That summer was hugely impacted by lack of staff after covid. They were even limiting passenger numbers at the airport. The airport is actually really convenient.
DeleteI think Amsterdam was the worst in the world at that point. That was just for one year though. Although there are still problems with passport control between Schengen and non-Schengen transfers.
DeleteGood work KLM. They seem to be doing well everywhere in ex-Yu despite the limited network.
ReplyDeleteYes and have good frequencies too.
DeleteWho would have though just a few years ago that AMS would be number 2!? And the difference with Frankfurt is not even that big.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if KLM could add more flights to Zagreb in the future, although I assume slots at AMS are a major problem. Plus the crazy ideas the government there gets with caps, taxing cow farts etc.
DeleteIt's crazy how Ryanair is now handling 50% more passengers than British Airways and Croatia Airlines combined!
ReplyDeleteAn LCC was badly needed on this route.
DeleteWhat's going on with VIE? Worse than 2023 and not to mention 2019. And I think this year there are even less flights than in 2024. Maybe people no longer are using OS to transfer with so many P2P options available now thanks to Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteExactly that. No more need to transfer anymore.
DeleteThanks for the numbers. Interesting stuff.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI wonder if KLMs new LJU flights will impact the numbers in ZAG?
ReplyDeleteI think there is a bigger chance it will impact LH in LJU.
DeleteFraport won't be happy about that.
DeleteThe same is Ryanair in Banja Luka impacted their numbers in ZAG. Or if you insist on LJU comparison, Flydubai, THY or Iberia 🙂
DeleteI think Croatian people are definitely traveling more with Ryanair around. Good job.
ReplyDeleteWithout doubt.
DeleteAmsterdam is generally a better hub for transfers than Frankfurt. KLM are doing a very good job
ReplyDelete@exyu - I have to say, this is amazing and all kudos to you for doing your reasearch and providing amazingly interesting content!🙏👏
ReplyDelete+1000 these results plus all the capacity numbers we get. We know in advance how well each airport will perform and why!
Delete+1
DeleteWhy doesn't Swiss fly to Zagreb? So odd. I think they would do great.
ReplyDeleteThey did fly a few years ago but it didn't work out.
DeleteUsed to be very successful for them in the 80s.
DeleteOU already flies twice a day from Zagreb.
DeleteCroatia Airlines flies twice daily to ZRH and its code-shared with Swiss. Why would Swiss bother to operate to ZAG with 2x cost level, while Croatia Airlines' is doing the job?
DeleteI cant really belive it because KLM`s policys and rules are really complicated. Prices for flying with KLM these days are extreme high, Economytickets is separated in four offers- Light-Standard-Standard Plus-Flex. Light does not give you checked inn bag and you have to pay an extra fee to chose a seat. Check the difference between Light and the other options. I used to fly them on ZAG-YYZ route since 2002. Service on board have also becommed really bad.
ReplyDeleteFlew with them Singapore-Bali last year (they have fifth freedom) on B777. Agree they are nothing spectacular.
Delete@Anon 10:09
DeleteIn KLM's light tariff you can select a seat free of charge during check-in. Standard seats only.
Also, you get sandwich to eat in an aircraft, as well as range of drinks twice, and then brownie at the end of the flight. Free of charge all!
Does mamaLufti have this cabin product? Nope.
Interesting to see busiest routes. No major surprises among them really.
ReplyDeleteRyanair's Beauvais does not seem to have impacted Paris CDG route
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many passengers on the LH hub routes are carried by Lufthansa and how many by Croatia Airlines
ReplyDelete^ But it's down almost 10% compared to 2019
ReplyDeleteThe only reason it's not below 2023 numbers is because of Olympics.
ReplyDeleteWhy there is no Sofia on the list?
ReplyDeleteMakes me wonder how KLM flying to Ljubljana will change Zagrebs numbers
ReplyDeleteLike they changed Dubai's numbers
DeleteRyanair is doing poorly on that route because they can't get the schedule right. This winter they flew twice per week and that was on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. Completely useless.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Berlin, Stockholm and Tirana?
ReplyDeleteTirana - 4,215
DeleteHow do you know
DeleteI suppose BER and ARN are doing better
Delete@14:57 TIA publishes numbers for every destination
DeleteWere they 2 or 3 weekly
Delete2 weekly
DeleteSometimes one weakly. Overall not bad, LF should be around 70%
DeleteBased on the amount of capacity, the load factor stood at 45.6%
DeleteAnd someone was claiming how well it did a couple of days ago
DeleteNo its 70% LF. They reduced capacity at the end.
DeleteThe load factor is based on the actual capacity, following the reduction of frequencies.
DeleteI don't think so. There wasn't 10.000 seats available.
DeleteSo what about Berlin and Stockholm? Where are numbers.
DeleteThere were 9.246 seats across 64 operations after the route was suspended between June 15 and July 5 and operated several weeks with reduced frequencies.
DeleteThe text clearly states the table includes 95% of Zagreb's total passenger numbers. Not every airport has reported figures for each route.
@19:11 Love when people are completely clueless yet they still persist
DeleteCheck again. There were no 64 flights, there were less. 64 flights were planned with no reductions in September and October.
DeleteThese are up to date figures and indeed include all reductions made on the route.
DeleteNo, they are not. Your number says there were only 6 flights cut, while in fact there were more.
DeleteI'm convinced you are a troll at this point. No one can be this obtuse
DeleteI once again have to correct you that the figure provided is correct. If you do not trust the figure I provided, using software directly linked to the Global Distribution System, you are more than welcome to count the number of flights recorded by Flightradar. You will find that a total of 32 flights were recorded by Flightradar (you can also review there the registration of each aircraft on each flight and the duration of each flight) and you will then be able to conclude that there were 64 operations on this route, once the return flight is included. Link to Flightradar OU308 log. If you are unable to view the flights due to subscription restriction, here is a sceenshot of all the operated flights. I believe we can now put the matter to rest.
DeleteThe idiot could have at least apologized.
DeleteNot only he didn't apologize but he accused the admin of lying. Obviously the comments got deleted :D
DeleteBravo Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteAlso there is a bunch of bad press about Beauvais... especially its terrible location and connections to Paris
ReplyDelete@Admin
ReplyDeleteWill Croatia fly charters to TLV starting 13 May 2025?
I mean Croatia Airlines :)
DeleteYes the are scheduled as regular charter flights, but not sold publicly.
DeleteAmin, can you make a post with this kind of statistic for BEG? Also, busiest unserved routes. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThey were posted a while ago but I think that OU regional routes might fill up as connection times are fairly good on certain days, even to the new destinations. They also seem to be cheaper than JU which is rarely the case
ReplyDelete